Unjustly Assigned Jobs and Pay Warrant Letter to Warden…But, Still No Response

In June I wrote to the warden concerning favoritism in the hiring practices at M.S.P. If you don’t know someone or a staff you will never get a job in industries. I put in applications for 4 ½ years while people coming here after me got right into industries because they knew someone.

Also concerning jobs, there are about 40 prisoners that get paid from the Inmate Benefit Fund which is suppose [sic] to benefit all inmates. There 40 prisoners get about 65,000.00 between them based on 2009 Inmate Benefit Fund expense report. Out of the fund they pay a much higher rate the [sic] the state pays workers.

Enclosed is a letter I sent to the warden on June 15, 2011. She never answers important issues that affect prisoners.

Most of the highest paying jobs go to workers that will never go home which leaves the people heading back to the streets out of luck.

I suggest all workers that don’t work in the kitchen or industries get paid $20.00 each per month. The Benefit Fund can handle that and everyone would get the same pay and the favoritism would start to fade.

Sincerely,

Thomas [last name omitted}

Maine State Prison

Letter to Warden Barnhart:

Dear Warden, June 15, 2011

I am seeking an informal resolution to an issue at Maine State Prison that has been going on for some time that needs to be addressed. That is favoritism in job hiring and the amount of money individuals are paid from the Inmate Benefit Fund.

The Inmate Benefit Fund is in place to benefit all prisoners. Currently you have a prisoner in the law library that hands out a few papers for $300.00 a month plus, the canteen workers $150.00-$175.00 a month, school workers up to $300.00 per month. There ussed [sic] to be 2 $100.00 a month positions in the greenhouse, now there is only 1 200.00 paid position.

Many of these positions are filled with prisoners that will that will [sic] never go home and that is unfair to the ones that will go home and need a few dollars to start over.

The hardest workers work in the kitchen and get pais [sic] the least and the money does not come out of the Inmate Benefit Fund. The Fund is for all prisoners and if you are going to pay a certain few extravagantly it is not fair to everyone else. Everyone should be paid a small stipend or nothing at all. We are all equal and there is basically no job in here that someone cannot learn to do.

I want a resolution to the favoritism and the huge disparity in the pay for prisoners.